Will Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) be teaming up in the near future? The possibility was discussed by the Fast Money traders in a discussion on CNBC.
The team first discussed remarks made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook about just how bullish he is on Apple Pay, the firm’s newly-launched electronic payment system. Cook said that he and his team has a lot more merchants and banks to sign up.
Furthermore, he noted that the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) system is only available now in the U.S. With a launch in other regions planned, the payment system is poised for growth, the CEO hinted.
Meanwhile, Jack Ma, the founder and leader of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), was quoted saying that he is “very interested” in Apple Pay. However, he did say that as with “any marriage,” both companies need to be “hardworking”. Nonetheless, the Chinese billionaire professed his respect for Apple and Cook who he said was doing a “fantastic job”.
According to Tim Seymour, he bought into Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) late in the day of its listing at the New York Stock Exchange. He said that investors are now understanding that this company has stunning growth (70%, according to Seymour) with more scale and the ability to dominate without the need to build out the same type of logistics that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has to build.
Guy Adami noted that the ancillary trade to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and he thinks $50 is the target price for the stock. Yahoo has been moving up, but not only because of its massive stake in Alibaba. Nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt to cash in on Yahoo now, Adami said, as he thinks the stock is going to be volatile moving forward.
Meanwhile, Karen Finerman was not sure whether a new partnership between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) can affect the Apple stock significantly. She said that Jack Ma is in a pretty good position to negotiate something for his company or himself.
Nonetheless, she said that even though a deal would be interesting, she is going to be less long on Apple because she thinks $105 will be a hard barrier for the stock to breach.
Seymour added to Finerman’s point that an Apple Pay deal would put pressure on Amazon saying that Alibaba is profitable and this, as Amazon and Alibaba are compared by potential investors, will put pressure on Amazon.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholders includes Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital Lp which reported that 12.72% of its portfolio is made up of Apple shares. The firm reported owning 52,760,848 shares in the iPhone maker by June 30, a stake that was then valued at about $4.9 billion.
